Chapter 4 VERONICA AND TRACEY

ARISE NEWS CORPORATION.

A lady presented a file to an older woman. The older woman looked at her with a bit of disgust before she reluctantly collected the file from the lady.

"Ma'am, the director sent this as exclusive as it concerned Chairman Williams of Williams Group and the Las Group..."

Hearing that it concerned Chairman Williams of Williams Group and Las Group immediately got the disgust in her face to disappear.

"Oh, the director sent this..."

"Yes ma'am. His secretary sent it over minutes ago."

"Minutes ago? And why am I just getting it now?" she raised her voice a bit.

The younger lady dipped her head and apologized. "I'm sorry ma'am."

"Go." She shooed her away before she opened the file. If she must get the promotion she sorely craved, then she knew she had to do more than just suck up to the director to make it happen fast.

"Oh my world!" she literally screamed as her eyes read through the content of the file she had been given.

"How can this be..." she muttered in disbelief. However, she stood from her seat and headed to the main room.

"Here, report this now." She told the reporter and handed the file to one of the reporters.

Minutes later, the news of soon to happen marriage between the heir of Williams Group and the second daughter of the Las Group spread. While some people wondered why the two business companies would make such announcement as it had never been rumored for the pair to be in any sort of relationship, some rumored that one of them could be going under while others think it could just be to strengthen their roots in the business world like other companies does. There were also others that thought it was too sudden and definitely had a hidden meaning. Another set were the ones in a one- sided love especially the ladies crushing on Lawrence that fell into sadness.

Yet others wondered why any family would let their daughter get married to an infamous playboy.

Veronica was chatting with her friends on that day when the news spread, without the slightest hint of what was going on.

"Girls, who is in, let's do some vacation." Elsie suggested with excitement. "I feel like my skin has been damn stressed these days and really think we should just cool off, come on girls, what do you say?"

"I'm in..." Gail started to say but stopped halfway. Her eyes widened as she stared into her phone. "Urh...what is this?" she mumbled slowly looking up to meet Veronica's face.

Veronica frowned, "What is it this time?"

"Veronica...look..." she held up her phone to Veronica's face. The news of her and Lawrence Williams was trending in the internet with the pictures of the day they had met at the hotel. Someone had captured them in camera.

"Fuvk!"

"Did you know about this?" Gail asked.

"No, what we should be asking right now is, is this...really true, are you getting married to him?" Elsie added.

Veronica had never been cornered in her entire life in this manner before. She was going to tell her friends soon and didn't want them to find out in this manner. How could the news be spreading already...?

"Look girls, please, don't panic..."

"Of course we are not, we trust you. Why would you ever agree to marry the infamous playboy...Gail right? You don't believe this too." Elsie laughed.

Gail nodded, "Yes, Vero, you have to make your parents sue this reporter. Asssh! All they do these days is report fake news just to create traffic."

Veronica felt her tongue glued to the roof of her mouth and her body still as she heard her friends say with so much conviction that she would never agree to marry the playboy and at that moment she just wished she didn't have to marry Lawrence Williams. She wished her family's business wasn't going down, then she wouldn't need to do this. Seeing them expressed their trust in her without knowing the news was right made her felt really bad.

Tracey stomped in almost at that time.

"You! have you always liked him behind my back? have you always wished to backstab me while keeping a pretty face with us and deceiving us all huh!"

"Calm down, Tracey, Veronica would never do that. Besides you don't think the news is true right?" Elsie defended Veronica.

"Vero, say something. Tell Tracey the news is fake." Gail added.

Veronica's lips parted but words refused to come out. Where exactly was she supposed to start from? Even if she told them, would they believe her?

Tracey scoffed, "Fake? You all know nothing about this bitch. See, she can't even say anything because the news is true!"

At that moment, Veronica knew she had to come clean and chest whatever her friends would throw at her.

"Yes, the news is true..."

"What???" the three girls gaped in shock.

Tracey charged at her furiously. "How could you do this to me...you bitchy friend!"

"Look Tracey, I more than anyone wish nothing of such would happen..."

"What? You think I would believe you huh? You are just a sneaky bitch who goes behind her friends to snatch the man she loves! Tell me, did you seduce him? Did you say terrible things about me to him to make him like you? Tell me, since when have you been deceiving us! I hate you! And I will make sure you regret this!" Tracey gnashed before stomping out of the place.

Elsie and Gail, still dumbfounded watched helplessly.

"I didn't mean for this to happen...Elsie, Gail, believe me."

"You always hated him, so why...have you always tried to stop Tracey from liking him because you had feelings for him too? Even if so, Veronica, how could you do this to her. She is your friend and you know she loved him a lot...I expected better from you." Gail said and shook her head.

"We thought you were crazy about Vincent...We were supposed to be friends and not hurt each other." Elsie said, disappointment lacing her tone.

Veronica swallowed hard. How was she going to tell them this whole thing was merely an arranged marriage and she was going to divorce him after five years? How would she tell them she was doing this to save her family's business and not because she liked anything about him?

She watched as Gail and Elsie walked out leaving her alone in the place.

She feared she might have lost her friends. She made a mental note to explain everything to them at night in their group chat but first she must hurry and see Vincent. How come he hadn't called her since the news got released. She feared he would be disappointed with her too.

She dashed out of the place and headed for Vincent's house. She put him on dial mode as she drove while hoping he wouldn't be mad at her like her girlfriends were.